Park City, Utah — The Olympic Charter says â€śany form of discrimination with regard to country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic movement.â€ť In light of Russia’s recently adopted anti-gay legislation and the furor that has created within the Olympic family, officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee say they would support an amendment to add “sexual orientation” to the list.

The Winter Olympics will be held Feb. 7-23 in Sochi, Russia’s largest resort city.

“The USOC, as an NOC (national organizing committee), doesnâ€™t have a vote,” chief executive Scott Blackmun said Tuesday at the Olympic Media Summit. “But we do have people who are members of the IOC who I think would be very supportive. I think there are things we can do within the Olympic movement to move that forward.”

USOC chairman Larry Probst, recently named an IOC member, would support the change.

“If it came to a vote of IOC members to eliminate any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation, I would absolutely vote yes to amend the charter,” Probst said.

In the meantime, there is a lot of uncertainty over what would happen if an American athlete were to make a political statement about the new Russian law during the Sochi Games — at a press conference, for example, or in a medal ceremony.

“We are actively seeking that kind of clarification (from the IOC),” Blackmun said. “Iâ€™m not sure theyâ€™re going to be able to give it to us. Each situation is so different. When you start trying to legislate in advance whatâ€™s over the line and whatâ€™s not, youâ€™re going to end up with a lot of examples and not a lot of guidance. Weâ€™re hopeful that the IOC will find ways to add some clarity to that and we can share that with our athletes so they can decide how they want to handle it.”